How To Evaluate Where My Divots Are Pointing After A Golf Shot (Video) - by Peter Finch

How To Evaluate Where My Divots Are Pointing After A Golf Shot (Video) - by Peter Finch

Now the first thing you need to be doing if you're going to analyze what your divots are actually doing is how to tell where they're actually traveling to. Now when you're looking and analyzing divots, the first thing you need to be doing is establishing what your target line is. Now I've got down here just an alignment stick which is just on the outside of my ball which represents my target line. It’s running you know two inches parallel to my target line. So it’s pretty much pointing down to where I want my ball to go.

Now this is very, very important and this all ties into what your alignment is, because a lot of people will see their divots starting to go off to the left-hand side. And they will assume that they are swinging quite a long way over the top of the ball. So the club is going from out to in cutting across the target line and traveling left through our impact. However if you are actually aiming your body off to the left-hand side, so it’s actually going left as opposed to actually traveling parallel to your target line. Your natural swing path is going to want to move in that direction.
So if you are seeing divots kind of travelling off to that left-hand side, don’t automatically assume that you are swinging over the top or if it’s a swing issue. It may simply be down to what your alignment is doing. Now that's very, very important because if you're aiming off to the left-hand side, then you are trying to get your swing path moving a little bit straighter through the ball to produce straighter divots, it could cause you more problems than it actually gives solutions. So it's very, very important for you to actually nail down what your alignment is.
Now if your alignment is correct and you are striking the ball, in a nice manner you are taking that nice divot. But those divots are traveling off to the left-hand side. What it means is actually you are coming through the point of impact. That club is hitting the ball and then starting to move left. That's the first kind of option so to speak. The second option is that you are coming so far from out to in that you are striking the ball and then the club is continuing to go left. Your natural swing arc, if you imagine a swing playing around my body tilted as it is around my spine angle.
As my club comes through the ball and it actually hits the shot, it’s going to want to travel left anyway. So just because you see a slightly left divot, it might not be the end of the world. And you might actually hit a very, very good golf shot. And that's the last bit of the analysis of how you can actually tell where your divots are actually going. Looking at your alignment, checking your body alignment, checking where the divots are going in relation to your target, but then relating it to ball flight.
If you're hitting the shot, the club is traveling through with the divot which is slightly left, but you're producing a perfectly straight ball flight. What that means is that your path into the ball is very, very good and the club is just traveling a little bit left after impact. And if the ball flight is going straight, then you don't need to worry about it. It’s when you start to see large amounts of curvature on the shot from left to right or a duck hook, that's when the problems begin. So that's how you can analyze your divots. That’s how you can see what's going on. Now let's have a little bit of a look more deeply into what you can do to try and alter this.
2016-06-08

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Now the first thing you need to be doing if you're going to analyze what your divots are actually doing is how to tell where they're actually traveling to. Now when you're looking and analyzing divots, the first thing you need to be doing is establishing what your target line is. Now I've got down here just an alignment stick which is just on the outside of my ball which represents my target line. It’s running you know two inches parallel to my target line. So it’s pretty much pointing down to where I want my ball to go.

Now this is very, very important and this all ties into what your alignment is, because a lot of people will see their divots starting to go off to the left-hand side. And they will assume that they are swinging quite a long way over the top of the ball. So the club is going from out to in cutting across the target line and traveling left through our impact. However if you are actually aiming your body off to the left-hand side, so it’s actually going left as opposed to actually traveling parallel to your target line. Your natural swing path is going to want to move in that direction.

So if you are seeing divots kind of travelling off to that left-hand side, don’t automatically assume that you are swinging over the top or if it’s a swing issue. It may simply be down to what your alignment is doing. Now that's very, very important because if you're aiming off to the left-hand side, then you are trying to get your swing path moving a little bit straighter through the ball to produce straighter divots, it could cause you more problems than it actually gives solutions. So it's very, very important for you to actually nail down what your alignment is.

Now if your alignment is correct and you are striking the ball, in a nice manner you are taking that nice divot. But those divots are traveling off to the left-hand side. What it means is actually you are coming through the point of impact. That club is hitting the ball and then starting to move left. That's the first kind of option so to speak. The second option is that you are coming so far from out to in that you are striking the ball and then the club is continuing to go left. Your natural swing arc, if you imagine a swing playing around my body tilted as it is around my spine angle.

As my club comes through the ball and it actually hits the shot, it’s going to want to travel left anyway. So just because you see a slightly left divot, it might not be the end of the world. And you might actually hit a very, very good golf shot. And that's the last bit of the analysis of how you can actually tell where your divots are actually going. Looking at your alignment, checking your body alignment, checking where the divots are going in relation to your target, but then relating it to ball flight.

If you're hitting the shot, the club is traveling through with the divot which is slightly left, but you're producing a perfectly straight ball flight. What that means is that your path into the ball is very, very good and the club is just traveling a little bit left after impact. And if the ball flight is going straight, then you don't need to worry about it. It’s when you start to see large amounts of curvature on the shot from left to right or a duck hook, that's when the problems begin. So that's how you can analyze your divots. That’s how you can see what's going on. Now let's have a little bit of a look more deeply into what you can do to try and alter this.